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File locking issue

Copper Contributor

We are running an on-prem Sharepoint 2013 standard edition and we recently upgraded our users to O365 Office 2016.  Soon after the Office 2016 upgrade, many users are reporting that they are having problem with saving files back to Sharepoint after editing them. When a user tries to save a document after editing, an "Upload Failed" error message gets triggered - "This file is checked out by another user" - the error message also shows a user ID that essentially is the user that is trying to save the file back to Sharepoint. It seems that somewhere in between, the session was lost and Sharepoint cannot recognize that the user who is trying to save the file is the same user that started editing (or checked out) the file.  The frequency of this issue is intermittent but seems to happen more with power users that have many MS Office document opened at the same time.  We have been in contact with Microsoft team for months, but so far no resolution. 

Has anyone experienced this issue and care to share the resolution?

12 Replies

See if they are facing issue with Excel files. We had same issue before and when we investigated.

 

Our users were opening excel file in Office Client (thick client) and expecting coauthoring which is not supported in excel.

 

Where are word supports in both webapps and thick client.

Thanks Anji, we will look into it.

I have the same issue amd again with SharePoint 2013 and after upgrade of my Office 365 to 2016 version.

 

I'm losing data so please advise a solution asap.

 

Chris

We are still troubleshooting the issue... focusing on WAN accelerators used in your environment.  Do any of you use a WAN accelerator such as Riverbed?

Hello

 

We have the same issue but in our case, its Sharepoint 2013, On-premise.

User has opened a doc in a library, made changes to word doc, tried to save and close.

The document is not able to be checked back in by domainname\user.

We then notice that the file is in th Upload Centre as "Upload failed" ..  and says check out for editing by the above user.

The impact is that other users have gon in and made changes after, so versioning is turned on which means the file has been overwritten. We resolve this by comparing the document with the current versions in SP.  

We have tried all of the usual fixes, like clearing the cache etc.,

We have also noticed that even though Microsoft say that the file is locked after closing for 10 mins, in one instance it took more than 30 minutes, but most cases not at all.

 

Thanks

We are having the same issue. If you edit in teams it is ok, if you edit online it is ok but if you edit in the (thick client) excel it locks the file and will not let you upload it. BUT the only way to work on the complicated formulas is by editing in the thick client.

 

The biggest issues is not the collaboration part as that work it is when you check out the file there is no way to get it back uploaded again.

best response confirmed by Erwin Bierens (MVP)
Solution

Please find below the problem, cause and resolution provided by Microsoft..

Note : - we do not use check in - check out in our environment...

Hope this helps

Stewart

 

PROBLEM

================================

there are some users report of upload failed issue, sometimes, it can be completed by retry, some time, it will always failed.

Also many different symptoms when saving on both office and SP side which point to lock issue.

 

CAUSE  & RESOLUTION

=================================

CAUSE: web client service add lock on the file

RESOLUTION: since no need for checkout/checkin, add below registry to disable the lock function of web client service but keep all other functions like explorer view support

                                HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters\SupportLocking=0

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

================================================

Registry to disable lock function when web client service is started:

  1. Start webclient service on user side
  2. Find registry: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters on their machines.
  3. Find value: SupportLocking(if no, please add), set its value to 0, want to just disable lock feature.

 

Is there a similar fix for Teams for Mac? We also do not use check-in/out, however when I create a word file within Teams, I can not move it or rename it or do anything except editing after I create it. The error message is that I have it locked for editing, however I do not have it locked for editing.

This is what worked for me. After syncing the library and finding the lock symbol on all the files in the library displayed in my File Explorer, this is what I did:

  1. Remove all required column status from all fields. Be sure to include the default Title field. You might have to drill into the Document and/or Item Content Types to get to it. (I have found that it seems to be set as a required field by default in the standard Document content type)
  2. Enable version control inclusive of drafts, be sure it is set for 'anyone who can read'. Save. Then return and disable it. 
  3. Enable Content Approval and save. Then return and disable it.

The key one, for whatever reason, was #3. When I did that, a message box popped up on my monitor saying something like 'you can now edit your files in OneDrive'. When I checked my File Explorer, the locks were gone. I verified today that other users who are syncing this library to their File Explorer are also now able to edit the files (the lock was gone for them, too).

 

Below is my original post.... LOL.... I was pretty excited to see that this worked. I hope it does for you, too.

 

Out of desperation, I enabled Content Approval and then disabled Content Approval and.....

Low and behold I got a pop up from ODB saying 'You can now edit your files'. I opened my File Explorer....yes...wait for it....and the LOCK WAS GONE!  OMG, I spent hours on this to find that it was one check box for a feature I'd never enabled for the library. Why it was affecting its performance, I haven't a clue, but it worked. WHEW!

If you use a tool to migrate content to Office 365 like Sharegate, it will transfer the document library settings that you had in your on-premises site, one of the key settings is require check in/out as this disables multi-user editing and OneDrive sync shows all the files as locked.  If you turn this off, it will make editing in OneDrive sync work but won't check back in existing files, you will need to get users to check these in or take ownership of the files and check them all in.

If you have a required column that is not set by the user when they add the file, it will mark it as requiring attention and I have noticed that this can also put the file in a checked out state.

Required data causes check out.PNG

If you open a document that was missing data, it will be read only even if it was check out to you. If you set the value in the SharePoint list to remove the "Required info" it still remain checked out and the user needs to check it in to edit it.
The server properties also moved from the header in Word to the File menu under properties so not obvious to users.
I would recommend setting a default on required meta data if you can and educate users on setting properties in Office Documents.
1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by Erwin Bierens (MVP)
Solution

Please find below the problem, cause and resolution provided by Microsoft..

Note : - we do not use check in - check out in our environment...

Hope this helps

Stewart

 

PROBLEM

================================

there are some users report of upload failed issue, sometimes, it can be completed by retry, some time, it will always failed.

Also many different symptoms when saving on both office and SP side which point to lock issue.

 

CAUSE  & RESOLUTION

=================================

CAUSE: web client service add lock on the file

RESOLUTION: since no need for checkout/checkin, add below registry to disable the lock function of web client service but keep all other functions like explorer view support

                                HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters\SupportLocking=0

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

================================================

Registry to disable lock function when web client service is started:

  1. Start webclient service on user side
  2. Find registry: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters on their machines.
  3. Find value: SupportLocking(if no, please add), set its value to 0, want to just disable lock feature.

 

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